He smirked a bit, and kicked his legs up. "Aright, aright, I'm baskin already..."

The prospective father arched an eyebrow at his corny girlfriends... very bad Uranus joke. "Babe, that was cheesier than your old man's mac." He chuckled it away, and then fell to silence once more as another comet passed by. "... You think they try to probe Uranus?"

The comet streaked past and collided with Jupiter, seemingly just a blip on the surface of the giant they'd recently occupied.

"You think we are ready for this? I mean, it's happening, and I can't wait, but... You know, I've felt braver fighting men who could lift mountains and throw them across the Atlantic... or something like that" He didn't seem freaked out at all, he was just laying there relaxing, but the crime fighter was truly at a loss... All he knew at this point is that apparently fighting the commie threat would be a recurring theme in parenting.

Also, how to cloth diaper and swaddle a danger room baby. He wasn't doing too bad, but he probably needed to drag Mirror into more of those classes.

She blew a raspberry at him for his criticism of her joke and started to gather up the dishes they had used. "Ha ha. Figures a butthead like you would make great anus jokes."

After she had repacked the basket and closed it up, she pondered on his words. "I mean... yeah, I feel like I'm ready. I don't get much sleep anyway and I don't have a regular 9 to 5 job... so i'll have plenty of time to focus on him." She'd decided a while ago she wanted a little boy... she wasn't sure who the little life inside her would end up being yet, but she could dream.

"And you have a pretty flexible schedule too. So... yeah. I think we'll be fine."

They were scheduled for parenting classes in the coming weeks with her midwife. It was supposed to cover basic things and common questions. She was looking forward to it.

"Whelp, i'm ready to move on if you are." The artist took a moment, and probably some help, getting to her feet. It was harder nowadays with her center of balance continually moving further out, and the gentle rotation of the rings wasn't helping. After she was stable, she pushed off gently from the planet and headed in the direction of the next.

Neptune was next... the second to last stop on their journey. It was a large deep blue planet. Dark hues of cobalt and sapphire swirled around as a large storm raged along the surface. She let herself float to a stop a few arms lengths away, watching her work in silent wonder. After a few moments, she spoke.

"You create this wonderful storm inside me. All of these wonderful feelings swirling around, battling for control. I don't ever want that to stop."

She didn't look at him yet, because off in the distance she could see Mars. A beautiful bright red jewel just a short fly away. The basket on her arm felt ten times heavier than normal. Was this what conventional men went though when proposing?

"Come on... I saved Mars for last."

She headed them off in that direction, swallowing some of her nerves along the way.

That was... actually a pretty good comeback. He tilt nodded in respect of her sick burn skills before turning to appreciate the bright lights in the painted night sky once more.

She felt like they could do it. That was good. Reassuring. He sat up again, and then climbed to his feet. "I mean, if nap time's out of the question, then yeah, let's move on." It turned out that Saturn's rings were pretty comfy. He pushed off after her; he was starting to get a hang of this whole floating in fake space, thing. They were headed for a blue ball of swirly stuff, now. She explained that it was Neptune. Woah, Neptune was crazy. Did it really look like that?

#@%%, he needed to get more into this astrology stuff.

She spoke more from her heart, and he allowed himself to get lost in it. He felt warm. This was all just... pretty nice. Otherworldly, overwhelming... but nice.

He paused and watched Pluto drift past as she mentioned wanting to go to Mars last. Pluto didn't look like people said it would look back in the day. Neat, though. It kinda had a bit of a heart shape on the surface. Try hard kinda little planet, huh?

They moved onward. "Why Mars last?" The question came to mind randomly.

"Because people might colonize it one day." She answered simply. "It's got a lot of potential... so when Earth dies, Mars might be where we all live." Well... the rich ones, at least. She was enough of a cynic to fully believe that the poor would get left behind on Earth to try and survive. Poor long-in-the-future sods.

The closer they got, the bigger it started too look. She'd put a lot of effort into how this planet would look, from the sandy texture down to the jagged rocks, and heck, maybe even a few of those questionable rock formations people kept insisting were faces or aliens.

Little particles of painted dust kicked up when they landed, and when she looked skyward the sight was spectacular. From where she landed if you looked straight up you could see all of the planets in a scattered line. Far away her Earth sat glittering like a blue marble. She settled the basket in front of her, clutching it with one hand while the other drummed nervously on the lid.

"Mars kind of represents a hopeful future. Bright possibilities.... and when you are here and looking back, it makes it harder to view the past in a bad light. She turned and look at him again, "When I look to the future, I see you in it. I see us together... I see us happy, with a little family."

One hand ducked into the basket, fumbling around for the little black box crammed all the way at the bottom. She withdrew it, opened it, and turned it toward him.

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Saph." Inside the box sat a gleaming golden ring. She'd stayed up late a while ago to sneak a measurement off his ring finger, so it was the right size, even.

"Will you marry me?"

Saph gave her a 'yer Sh^#in me' look when she talked about people colonizing Mars."Heh, Maybe rich people. Just gonna leave us poor people back here." His eyes locked on the red planet as it got bigger and bigger. They landed on the harsh surface, and he poked at the dirt with the bottom of his shoe, eyeing the footprint with a grin.

"Yeah, this is pretty cool-" He lost his train of thought as he looked up, seeing all of the planets splayed about in the path above. "Wow." He looked down and smiled at her words, Her vision for the future. "Sounds good to me. Five kids. Ten? Ten kids?"

He chuckled at the joke. Ten Saphbys and Shelbirus's running around. Sounds terrifying.

He went back to enjoying the scene once more as Shelby dug in the basket, presumably for dessert. She spoke once more, and he turned to see her standing there with a box in her hands. She opened it up, and his jaw hit the floor. "Yer #$%&in me."

He stared for a moment, the shock playing out on his face. "Well, I mean, yeah, but damn. This is... holy @#$t!" He sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Howm I ever gonna match this?"

"Your aren't." She replied with a cheeky smile, "That's the point."

She reached out for his hand to put the ring on. "You are doomed to look back on this day and lament the fact that nothing you could possibly come up with will ever match my amazing awesomeness."

Then she turned and gazed up at her creation with him. "How would you wanna get married?" She asked, knowing he had a rocky past with the subject. "Wanna run off to Vegas for a bit? It'd be a good excuse for you to get out and see a few other states before Dad-life straps you down to home."

He gave her a flat expression as she frankly professed that he would never one up this. Oh, that was a challenge then. He held out his hand to let her put the ring on, looking at it. "Well, damn, you put a ring on it. Guess there's something to like after all." It was fancy. He would have to save a bit to get her a nice ring. Maybe he would use the car fund; he'd been saving for a while, but the car was still running, so that could wait.

A girl like her deserved the biggest rock he could find. Something fierce.

He shrugged when she asked how she wanted the wedding. "Nothing big. I don't mind eloping or what ever, only a few people i'd want to go anyway." He didn't mention the was wedding, which had been a big thing, and was subsequently attacked by a mutant terrorist organization. The spectacle wasn't his kind of thing anyway. Their life was their to do with what they wished.

He smiled a bit.

"Never been to Vegas... Might be nice. Seems like a place your dad would like." He smiled a bit, and stared for a moment, before grabbing her and wrapping her in a huge hug. "You're something else." He pulled away long enough to give her a big kiss before pausing and staring again.

"Wanna be the first people to make whoopy on mars?"

"Vegas is it then." She mentally started to take notes. She'd been there once a long time ago so she knew a few interesting places to go, and now that she had her finances in order she could afford one of those fancy hotels.

She had a feeling Saph would be impressed with rich-people-vegas hotel rooms.

"You give me a list of who you want to come and I'll tell dad. We'll make a plan for when later after we can give it more thought."

She let herself relax into the hug, basking in the warmth. She'd definitely missed that a lot. When he kissed her and pulled back, she couldn't help but grin at him in response. From her basket came a folded up picnic blanket.

"I thought you'd never ask."


[Fade to black / End]